By Matthew Russell Lee, Video Patreon Order
SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 19 – The U.S. Treasury employee accused in October 2018 of leaking Suspicious Activity Reports about Paul Manafort and others, Natalie Edwards, pleaded guilty to one count on January 13, 2020 before U.S. District Court Southern District of New York Judge Gregory H. Woods.
On June 3, 2021, Edwards was sentenced at the top of the guidelines, which Judge Woods said understated the gravity of the offense - to six months, beginning in August. Thread here and below.
Edwards got a plea agreement for between zero and six months and a $9500 fine which her lawyer afterward told Inner City Press was a standard fine. Video here; live tweeted thread of plea proceeding here. More on Patreon here.
After the sentencing, Edwards counsel asked to have two documents removed from the docket, after having gotten letters submitted by Edwards sealed. So Inner City Press filed, here on DocumentCloud here, now in the docket and on CourtListener here and below.
On April 18, 2022 Judge Woods issued two orders, one repeating that Edwards letters were not judicial documents, the other denying her request to seal other documents cited in the sentencing. The difference seems to be that it was Edwards who cited her letters, offering thanks, while the others were expressly replied on by the court. But must such reliance be express? Some surmise with all due respect a non-judicial document loophole to transparency that may need a statutory solution. Still, addressing the application / issues is appreciated and helps move the issue foward. From Order 1:
"On June 14, 2021, Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press wrote to the Court requesting that the Court disclose the Withdrawn Documents (the 'Application.') Mr Lee asserts that because the defendant had thanked the Court for something related to the Withdrawn Document, the Withdrawn Documents had become judicial documents."
From Inner City Press' filing: "I write for a second time pursuant to your June 6, 2021 order and in supplemental support of the July 21, 2021 application for press and public access to submissions to this Court by defendant Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards, that triggered a judicial conference. Those submissions, which the US references in its filing of today's date, were also referred to by the defendant at sentencing. While not entirely clear, she appeared to thank the Court not only for considering but also acting on her submission. That would seem to make them judicial documents - and the decision to the contrary should be reconsidered in light of what was said at sentencing. The US Attorney's Office which stood by as those submissions were sealed now refers to them as relevant background to its filed of MSPB documents it does not want sealed. Both sets of documents should be public: the MSPB filing already in the public docket, and the defendant's submission which remain, for now, sealed. Tellingly, the defendant wants both sets of documents withheld from the press and public; the US wants what it made public to remain so, but is indifferent to the sealing of defendant's submissions it already saw. The Press wants both sets of documents made part of the record. See US v. Gerena, 869 F.2d 82 (2d Cir. 1989) For consistency, and to provide transparency into what the defendant was thanking the Court for during her sentencing, all of the records should be made public and part of the docket."
On Friday July 30, Edwards through counsel in a heavily redacted letter asked to delay her August 2 surrender to imprisonment. The US has opposed - but also with heavy redactions. Not without sympathy but we must note: this whole whistleblower cases is ironically shielded in secrecy.
Now on August 2 Judge Woods to his credit has ordered: "MEMO ENDORSEMENT granting in part [106] LETTER MOTION addressed to Judge Gregory H. Woods from Stephanie Carvlin dated 7/30/2021 re: postpone surrender date. ENDORSEMENT: Application granted in part. The defendant's surrender date is adjourned to September 3, 2021. The defendant should not expect further extensions. The defendant is directed to submit any response to the application dated June 2, 2021, Dkt. No. 102, no later than August 15, 2021."
Docket 102 is Inner City Press' June 14, 2021 request to unseal. Watch this site.
Back on August 4, 2020, Inner City Press filed its second opposition to the attempt to make Edwards' submissions to SDNY Judge Woods disappear as supposedly not judicial documents.
On October 20, Judge Woods in a 12-page order denied Inner City Press' request (full order on DocumentCould here) and quoted below.
Here is Inner City Press' live thread of the June 3 in-person sentencing, here
Watch this site.
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